PRESS

Daily Orange, April 18, 2024
Megan Lewis’ ‘Chromatic Expressions’ captures Black introspection through paintings

Syracuse community members gathered for an intimate event in the main hall of the Community Folk Art Center (CFAC) to observe “Chromatic Expressions,” a 23-piece gallery by multidisciplinary illustrator Megan Lewis. The gallery celebrates the many facets and emotions of Black people. full article

ARTCENTRON, April 12, 2024
Megan Lewis: Portraying Black Masculinity and Life Through Art

…One artist who has particularly captured the attention of both art lovers and collectors is Megan Lewis. Her paintings are prominently on display at the Galerie Myrtis Booth 405. Despite this being the gallery’s inaugural participation in the event, the collection of works on display has made it a standout attraction. full article

CNN, March 13, 2024
Monica Ikegwu on ‘Art is Life’ segment

During the interview conducted by correspondent Victor Blackwell, Ikegwu discussed the sense of empowerment her subjects gain through modeling and the importance of visibility. Further, the interview uplifted Monica’s forthcoming solo exhibition with Galerie Myrtis, “Extensions,” opening in the Fall. Band of Vices coordinated the CNN segment. watch segment

Essence, February 2, 2024
YA LA’FORD TEAMED UP WITH THE WELL-KNOWN LUXURY SKI WEAR BRAND TO MAKE WINTER SPORTS MORE ACCESSIBLE FOR ALL

The Bronx is no stranger to cold weather, but you don’t often associate the New York City borough with skiing or snowboarding. So, imagine artist and Bronx native Ya La’Ford’s surprise when luxury ski wear brand, Rossignol, asked her to help take one Bronx high school student’s interpretation of their dream mountain and use it to design an extra special set of skis for a great cause. full article

WMAR News Baltimore, February 1, 2024
Baltimore Artist Fights Outdated Narratives Surrounding Black Men through Art by Rushaad Hayward

Early on, Jerrell Gibbs knew he could draw. The Baltimore native picked up a paintbrush at the age of five and never looked back. Fast forward to now, Gibbs has artwork in the U.S. Capitol building, the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Los Angeles Museum of Art, and the X Museum in Beijing to name a few. full article

Colossal Magazine, December 30, 2023 (Lavett Ballard featured)
100 Years After the Original, ‘The New Brownies’ Book’ Revives a Beloved Children’s Publication for Black Youth by Kate Mothes

…The New Brownies’ Book: A Love Letter to Black Families, published by Chronicle Books and designed by Kieron Lewis, showcases work by contemporary Black artists and writers who celebrate the extraordinary lives and imaginations of children. full article

Prazzle, December, 20, 2023
Morel Doucet recognized as Prazzle Visionary 25 Honoree

Morel Doucet has been recognized as a Prazzle Visionary 25 Honoree. This prestigious award has been given to a select group of international visionaries who are leading the way in creative movements. Doucet was chosen for his exceptional sculptures that explore the effects of climate change and rapid development on marginalized communities. full article

Colossal Magazine, September, 19, 2023
Morel Doucet on Beauty, Gentrification, and Why He Uses Poetry to Tell His Story

I spoke with Doucet via Zoom in September 2023, a few months after he closed his first solo exhibition at Galerie Myrtis and premiered his works in Chicago in At the Precipice: Responses to the Climate Crisis. We discuss those milestones, how his upbringing on his grandfather’s farm laid the foundation for his work, his proclivity for poetry, and why it’s important for him to tell his own stories. full article

Afro News, August, 1, 2023
Reginald F. Lewis Museum Exhibit Highlights Afro-futurism Movement

…The full exhibit that was on display in Venice has been scaled down to feature eight artists, including pieces from talents such as M. Scott Johnson, Tawny Chatmon, Larry Cook, Delita Martin and Felandus Thames. Through their art, guests have been encouraged to think beyond what people have known Black life and culture to be like both historically and currently. full article

Colossal Magazine, May 4, 2023
Invoking the Divine Feminine, Delita Martin’s Mixed-Media Portraits Embrace Self-Empowerment by Grace Ebert

“Duality is the idea that there are two realms within (the) spirit world,” says Delita Martin, “one that is seen and one that is unseen.” This coupling is a grounding force for the artist as she practices an alchemy of spirit and aesthetics, coaxing dynamic figures from a mélange of patterns, materials, and symbols. full article

BMORE Art, April 10, 2023
Goya Contemporary Helps to Induct Galerie Myrtis into IFPDA

In early 2023, Galerie Myrtis was successfully inducted into the prestigious organization with the help of Goya Contemporary. The same month, Goya’s Executive Director Amy Eva Raehse was also elected to the IFPDA’s Board of Trustees. Galerie Myrtis is an emerging gallery and art advisory specializing in twentieth and twenty-first century American art with a focus on work created by African American artists. full article

Baltimore Banner, March, 25, 2023
The future of African American art finds a home in Maryland

Myrtis Bedolla was gobsmacked walking into the gallery. Her exhibition, “Afro-Futurist Manifesto: Blackness Reimagined,” was finally home in Baltimore. The exhibition — now on display across the city at the Reginald F. Lewis Museum, the James E. Lewis Museum of Art and Galerie Myrtis — first showed at the Venice Biennale, a prestigious international art and cultural exhibition hosted each year in Italy. full article

Baltimore Sun, March, 10, 2023
Baltimore Backstage: [Blackness re-imagined at the Lewis]

When I first encountered Arvie Smith’s two paintings on view through Sept. 5 at the Reginald F. Lewis Museum, it took me a few minutes to figure out what made me so uncomfortable. I walked away, but the paintings called out to me and I came back. full article

Artsy, November 9, 2022
10 Galleries That had Breakout Year in 2022

This year has presented myriad challenges for galleries. While pandemic lockdowns are still a recent memory in Europe and the U.S., and ongoing in many regions of Asia, the war in Ukraine has presented an entirely new international art world landscape to contend with in 2022… full article

New York Times, October, 2022
Christie’s and a Baltimore Gallery to Sell Work by Black Artists

At a time when galleries and museums are focusing on diversity in the artists they show, Christie’s auction house this month will collaborate with the Black-owned Galerie Myrtis in Baltimore to sell a selection of work by six contemporary Black artists. full article

Baltimore Beat, October, 2022
BALTIMORE’S GALERIE MYRTIS’ BEAUTIFUL AND THE DAMNED by Teri Henderson

The Beautiful and the Damned features the work of Megan Lewis, Lavett Ballard, and Monika Ikegwu, three Black women artists who Galerie Myrtis represents. In this exhibition, the women explore desire and standards of beauty in their elegant, powerful, and sentimental depictions of Black men and women. full article

Artnet News, September, 2022
A Black-Owned Baltimore Gallery Aims to Change the Game by Partnering Directly With Christie’s by Vittoria Benzine

“They’re keenly aware of how important these artists are,” Bedolla told Artnet News of Christie’s decision to join forces. “There was no hesitation to embrace the idea of working together.” full article

Christies, September, 2022
Post-War to Present… and Collaboration with Galerie Myrtis: Time, Space, Existence: Afro-futurist Visions

Among the highlights are a groundbreaking group of six artworks in collaboration with Myrtis Bedolla, Time, Space, Existence: Afro-Futurist Visions from Galerie Myrtis. Each of the six artists—Delita Martin, Larry Cook, M. Scott Johnson, Monica Ikegwu, Morel Doucet, and Tawny Chatmon full article

Experience Magazine, Issue 38, 2022 (pgs. 15-17)
Majestic Reflections by Yaniya Lee

…”while galleries, museums, and other art spaces begin to reassess their mission statements and take a serious look at how diversity can improve their environments, talents such as Chatmon lead the conversations centering on… a dramatic and sensational celebration of Black beauty.” full article

Personal Structures, July 2022
The Beauty and Confidence of Blackness

The Afro-Futurist Manifesto: Blackness Reimagined. With this installation, Galerie Myrtis seeks to provide insight into the socio-political concerns of the African-American community and celebrates black culture by paying tribute to the reliance, creativity, ingenuity, and spirituality that has historically sustained Black people, bringing it into a completely new set of Venetian landscapes. full article

Glasstire, June 2022
10 Works from the Venice Biennale that I Wish the Fort Worth Modern Would Acquire by Colette Copeland

[Tawny] Chatmon’s gold-leafed photographic portraits celebrate the beauty of black childhood. Inspired by 15th century Italian artists and artisans, as well as gold-inscribed historical relics, the artist juxtaposes the portraits onto historical landscape paintings as an act of affirmation. full article

Glasstire, June 2022
Tangible Advancement: An Interview with Delita Martin by Colette Copeland

Based in Huffman, Texas, artist Delita Martin creates work that reconstructs the identity of Black women through the layering of signs, symbols, and language, from historical to modern times. Her powerful, young, female protagonists project strength and confidence rooted firmly in the present, but also remain connected to their spiritual selves. full article

New York Public Library, 2022
Tribute to an Afrofuturist Deity: Schomburg Center Artist & Educator M. Scott Johnson Exhibits at 59th Venice Biennale

…The stone chips were flying as M. Scott Johnson, a sculptor and visual arts instructor at the Center’s Junior Scholars Program, began work on the first sculpture of his triptych, The Metamorphosis of High John the Conqueror: Tribute to an Afrofuturist Deity. full article

BMORE Art, May, 2022
Parallels and Meaningful Difference: Activating the Renaissance by Kerr Houston

…Arguably, the most extraordinary pairing in the entire show involves the placement of Tawny Chatmon’s haunting Covered/Vienna? next to an enigmatic oil painting by Pontormo. Both works are dual portraits, and both pair a coolly confident adult woman—embodiments, really, of sprezzatura— with a girl in a hesitant pose. full article

Artlyst, April 2022
Eight Of The Best Collateral Events – 59th Venice Biennale by Lee Sharrock

Myrtis Bedolla, founding director of Galerie Myrtis in Baltimore MD, has curated a breathtaking group exhibition at the European Cultural Centre in Palazzo Bembo. Titled ‘The Afro-Futurist Manifesto: Blackness Reimagined’, the exhibition groups together 8 artists who are reclaiming the inequality of white art history from the point of view of a black narrative… full article

Pigmment Magazine, 2022
Venice says “BENVENUTO to Galerie Myrtis in 2022

By [Galerie Myrtis] is the first Black-owned gallery to be invited to participate in the Biennale-affiliated “Personal Structures: Time Space and existence.” The gallery was invited to the prestigious show by the European Cultural Centre-Italy. full article

Black art in America, April 2022
Galerie Myrtis: Exhibiting Black Art at The Venice Biennale by Shantay Robinson

By invitation of the European Cultural Centre-Italy, Galerie Myrtis is the first black-owned gallery to be invited to participate in the Biennale-affiliated exhibition Personal Structures: Time, Space, and Existence. This historic moment is predated by the 2020 racial reckoning the world experienced. full article

Oregon Artswatch, March, 2022
Arvie Smith show at Hallie Ford Museum demands you straighten up your spine and look by David Bates

The exhibition of Portland artist Arvie Smith’s extraordinary oil paintings at the Hallie Ford Museum of Art in Salem is remarkable on many levels, including the fact that it’s even here. It was, first of all, an early casualty of the pandemic.. full article

Willamette University, March, 2022
Arvie Smith ’86: Lifetime of painting leads to a peak of the art world by Jennifer Johnson

Today Smith’s paintings can be found in many public spaces across Portland, the Nelson Mandela Estate in South Africa and this spring, in Italy. After the current exhibit of his work, “Arvie Smith: Scarecrow,” ends at Hallie Ford Museum of Art on March 26, he will fly to the country to join seven other African American artists selected for an affiliate exhibition at the 2022 Venice Art Biennale… full article

Cleveland Art Museum, March, 2022
Resistance in Black and White

Within the exhibition, Jack Whitten’s large-scale monochromatic abstraction, Rho I (1977) is paired with Felandus Thames’s African King of Dubious Origins (2022), an intricately beaded reproduction of a 1990s black-and-white photograph of Rodney King after he’d been beaten by four Los Angeles police officers. full article

WMAR, March 2022
Painting the Town with Megan Lewis by Kelly Swoope

You’ve probably seen Lewis’ work and didn’t realize it, while her studio on West Baltimore Street is filled with bright colorful paintings…it’s the city of Baltimore that’s her biggest canvas.. full article

Smithsonian Magazine, March, 2022
How Black Men Changed the World by Shantay Robinson

Ryan Coogler is a global phenomenon. The writer and director of the film Black Panther created another world, one where for the first time, Black people were central to its narrative. His portrait created by the Atlanta-based artist Alfred Conteh is painted with the artist’s signature style of destressed colorful figures against a patterned backdrop. In this instance, Conteh is not painting Black people he identified on Atlanta streets to represent economic disparity, he’s painting one of the most influential filmmakers of today. full article

Washington Post Magazine, February, 2022
A painter who surrounds her Black subjects with gold by Lesile Gray Streeter

…[Chatmon’s] glittering pieces find their roots in in the works of past creators like Gustav Klimt … Chatmon who was named as one of “7 Artists You Should Know” by director Shinda Rimes’s Shondaland site and seven others Black artists are part of the exhibit curated by Myrtis Bedolla, of Baltimore’s Galerie Myrtis. full article

Print Magazine, October, 2021
Megan Lewis Is A Masterful Multidisciplinary Artist With Her Sights Set On Growth by Charlotte Beach

Megan’s first-ever solo exhibition, “Language of the Soul,” was recently launched at the Eubie Blake Cultural Center in partnership with Galerie Myrtis, where her vibrant, pattern-filled paintings will be on display through November 20th. She imbues her subjects with bold colors and power-clashing patterns, with some of the pieces even embellished with textiles. full article

Artsy, September, 2021
5 Artists on Our Radar This September – Artsy Curatorial and Artsy Editorial [mention of Felandus Thames]

[Thames] will also be featured in the 2022 exhibition “The Afro‐Futurist Manifesto: Blackness Reimagined,” presented by Galerie Myrtis at the Venice Biennale. Thames’s work has also been shown at the Mississippi Museum of Art, Real Art Ways, Jenkins Johnson Gallery, Kravets Wehby Gallery, Tilton Gallery, the International Print Center New York, and the African American Museum of Philadelphia… full article

Culture Type, August, 2021
Latest News in Black Art: Guggenheim Hires Diversity Chief, Galerie Myrtis Presenting Exhibition at Venice Biennale, Kehinde Wiley Redesigns MTV Moonperson & More by Victoria L. Valentine

Galerie Myrtis Fine Art & Advisory of Baltimore, Md., was invited to participate in Personal Structures, an affiliate exhibition at the 2022 Venice Biennale. The Black-owned gallery founded by Myrtis Bedolla will present “The Afro-Futurist Manifesto: Blackness Reimagined” featuring eight artists—Tawny Chatmon, Larry Cook, Morel Doucet, Monica Ikegwu, M. Scott Johnson, Delita Martin, Arvie Smith, and Felandus Thames. full article

Art Critique, July 2021
Three year Smithsonian exhibition to highlight men of colour and their impact on history by Katherine Keener

In August, the Smithsonian will launch a long-term travelling exhibition highlighting African American men. Titled ‘Men of Change: Power. Triumph. Truth.’, the exhibition will feature men of colour who are historic and contemporary icons linked to US history. full article

Adventura Magazine, June 2021
Portraits of Resilience” at MOCA North Miami

…His [Morel Doucet] artwork celebrates the uniqueness and beauty of the African diaspora within Miami’s historically African American neighborhoods—Little Haiti, Overtown, Allapattah, and Liberty City—and over the past several years, Doucet has gathered various flora and fauna from these communities to create ecological drawings in the forms of abstract portraiture of the residents that live in these districts.s. full article

Art Critique, June 2021
In the galleries: An intimate panorama of video art’s variety and breadth by Mark Jenkins [mention of Tawny Chatmon]

The Maryland artist, a veteran commercial photographer, makes crisp pictures of cherished people and then adorns them with loosely painted jewels and flowers. The ornaments, rendered with pigment and gold leaf and sometimes three-dimensional, complement lustrous shades of Black skin and hair. full article

Artsy, June 2021
Black-Owned Galleries to Support across the United States – Artsy Editorial [mention of Galerie Myrtis]

Galerie Myrtis is built on more than 30 years of art-world experience from founder Myrtis Bedolla. In addition to her roles as art advisor and founding director of the gallery, Bedolla has also curated shows at the National Museum of Niger, the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American Art in Detroit, and the Katzen Arts Center in Washington, D.C. full article

Blanc Magazine, 2021
Arvie Smith The Seer by Zachary Weg

The paintings of Arvie Smith lock the eye. Dark yet bright, uncompromising yet compassionate, the work of the eighty-two-year-old Portland artist grips the viewer with not just its fiery social engagement but, when looked at more closely, the intensely personal vision of its creator… full article

Vanity Fair, May 2021
The Power of Black Art and Visual Storytelling by June Sarpong [mention of Felandus Thames]

A year since the murder of George Floyd, the art world is finally acknowledging Black artists and curators—and recognising the influence of their imagery has never been more significant. In Baltimore, Myrtis Bedolla’s Galerie Myrtis is experiencing demand for Felandus Thames’ thought-provoking work. full article

Art Net News, May 2021
How Black Art Promoters Are Urging Artists to Look Beyond Traditional White Gatekeepers by Melissa Smith [features Alfred Conteh]

…Black collectors who have historically been shut out of buying Black art—a scenario that has placed Black artists in the position of “becoming wealth creators for traditionally white institutions and organizations,” says artist Alfred Conteh, who is represented by Kavi Gupta in Chicago along with Galerie Myrtis, a bulwark in Baltimore’s Black community full article

The Mississippi Museum of Art (MMA) and the Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA), May 2021
A Movement in Every Direction: Legacies of the Great Migration [features Larry Cook]

The Mississippi Museum of Art (MMA) and the Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) today announced the co-organization of a major exhibition that will unveil newly commissioned works by 12 of the most acclaimed African American artists working today examining the profound impact of the Great Migration on the social and cultural life of the United States. full article

Miami New Times, April 2021
Morel Doucet Harnesses the Political Power of Art by Carolina Del Busto

On any given day, you can find Morel Doucet in his studio at the Bakehouse Art Complex in Wynwood. In fact, the artist spends so much time in his studio that he has a stationary exercise bike in the back of the room. full article

ABC Entertainment, 2021
Tawny Chatmon’s Artworks Featured in Soul of a Nation on ABC

Soul of a Nation, a six-episode series, presents viewers with a unique window into authentic realities of Black life and dive deeper into this critical moment of racial reckoning. Tawny Chatmon’s artworks were featured in episode 4, titled Black Joy, which was referenced in the coda of poetry by Boston Globe Journalist, Jeneé Osterheldt who spoke on what defines Black Joy. abc – soul of a nation

Connecticut Art Review, March, 2021
Studio Visit | Felandus Thames by Jacquelyn Gleisner

Pleasure. This is the first word that viewers will connect with the work of Felandus Thames at his solo show The Things That Haunt Me Still at Real Art Ways. Bright orange beads pop against a vibrant kelly green backdrop in this central work. The bold, seraphic font alludes to the colors and diction of advertisements for Newport cigarettes from the 1980s. full article

Focus, February, 2021
10 Black Photographers on Instagram You Should Be Following by Brendan Mitchell [features Tawny Chatmon]

February is Black History Month, so we’ve taken the opportunity to profile some of our favorite Black photographers on Instagram. The artists featured below are masters of their trade. Their Instagram profiles are filled with visually striking imagery, from captivating portraits to surrealist visual art. full article

Luxe Magazine, January, 2021
On A Mission To Change Hearts And Minds Through Art And Activism by April Hardwick

For many creatives, turning a passion into a business seems far-reaching. But for artist Delita Martin, it was only a matter of time. “I had always imagined going out on my own,” she recalls. “And it was my husband who eventually encouraged me to live out my dream.” Propelled by her talent and his support, in 2016 Martin opened Black Box Press Studio outside Houston. full article

Daily Art Magazine, December, 2020
Lavett Ballard’s African American and Female Narratives byMaia Heguiaphal

Lavett Ballard‘s work is currently on show in two exhibitions, When She Roars is on at the Long-Sharp Gallery and Women Heal through Rite and Ritual is on at the Galerie Myrtis. When entering the show, you will discover works of art that question identity and self-identity using painted collages on wood fences. Lavett Ballard chose this medium to create a lexicon of images of African American and female identity.full article

Whitewall, October, 2020
Myrtis Bedolla is Deploying Art to Address Political and Social Issues by Katy Donoghue

Galerie Myrtis presents “Women Heal through Rite and Ritual” through the end of the year. The show’s focus was conceived prior to this year’s health crisis, and yet its timing could not be more fitting. Work by artists Lavett Ballard, Tawny Chatmon, Oletha DeVane, Shanequa Gay, Delita Martin, Elsa Muñoz, and Renée Stout look to non-Western traditions of the women’s role as nurturer, both physically and spiritually. full article

Musée Magazine, September, 2020
Tawny Chatmon’s “The Redemption”

…The models who are mostly children all have an array of hairstyles — braids with beads, locs, plaits embellished with ornate hair jewelry, Bantu knots, and “ afro puffs.” Some wear crowns, regalia that is representative of reclaiming the power of being Black with “ Black hair” and are dressed in the splendor of gold outfits befitting kings and queens. full article

Cultured Magazine, July, 2020
Why My Blackness s Not a Threat to Your Whiteness and Black Lives do Matter

As “Renaissance: Noir” draws to a close on July 3rd, I reflect on the discussion that gave birth to the exhibition and the circumstances that led to its timeliness. It began with a conversation nearly a year ago with Arthur Lewis, the then newly-appointed Creative Director of UTA Fine Arts and UTA Artist Space. full article

BMORE Art, June 22, 2020
Radical and Visionary: NMWA Collects 200+ Works by Women in 2020 by Cara Ober

…the museum also acquired one of Delita Martin’s stunning large-scale portraits that mix printing, drawing, collage, and stitching, from her recent museum solo exhibition after one museum patron established a fund to support the museum’s work with emerging contemporary artists. full article

The New York Times, June, 2020
Black Gallerists Press Forward Despite a Market That Holds Them Back by Robin Pogrebin

“The art world is still very segregated,” said Myrtis Bedolla, the founding director of Galerie Myrtis in Baltimore. “Galleries are primarily owned by white men.” full article

Flaunt Magazine, June, 2020
RENAISSANCE NOIR | A VIRTUAL EXHIBITION AT UTA ARTIST SPACE by Rae Niwa

UTA Artist Space here in Los Angeles is currently hosting, Renaissance Noir, a virtual exhibition from June 9- July 3, 2020. The show features works from 12 emerging Black artists and is curated by Myrtis Bedolla, the owner of Baltimore based gallery, Galerie Myrtis. full article

The Hollywood Reporter, June, 2020
L.A. Art Galleries Sell Works to Benefit Black Lives Matter Movement by Degen Pener

UTA Artist Space has launched its first virtual exhibit, in association with Baltimore’s Black-owned Galerie Myrtis. The Renaissance: Noir show (on view through July 3) features paintings by 12 emerging Black artists, with a portion of proceeds going to Artist Relief, which is supporting artists during the COVID-19 pandemic. full article

Artnet News, June, 2020
On View: A Dozen Black Artists Explore the Triumphs and Tribulations of Life in America in a New Online Exhibition—See It Here

As galleries around the world begin to slowly reopen, we are spotlighting individual shows—online and IRL—that are worth your attention [Renaissance: Noir.] full article

Culture Type, June, 2020
On View: ‘Renaissance: Noir’ Curated by Myrtis Bedolla at UTA Artist Space by Victoria L. Valentine

UTA ARTIST SPACE in Los Angeles is presenting a virtual exhibition curated by Myrtis Bedolla, founder of Galerie Myrtis, a black-owned art gallery in Baltimore. A selection of largely figurative works in a variety of mediums by 12 artists is on view in “Renaissance: Noir.” full article

Architectural Digest, June, 2020
Young Black Artists Speak About the Role of Art in This Moment by Nick Mafi

Groundbreaking artists such as Njideka Akunyili Crosby and Jammie Holmes and [Wesley Clark] discuss their work in the context of 2020, and what power art has to lead us toward a better tomorrow. full article

CULTUREVOLT, June, 2020
A Conversation with Wesley Clark, an American artist speaking on issues faced by Black people in America

I guess I’d consider myself on the latter end of emerging. Honestly, it’s not something I think about, though. I’ve never had the best interpretation of the various stages, but in my mind I probably feel like I’m forever emerging. full article

Whitewall, June, 2020
Myrtis Bedolla Curates “Renaissance: Noir” for UTA Artist Space by Lola Desmole

“’Renaissance: Noir’ is more poignant than ever as we share these thought-provoking works which depict the social, political, and historical journey of the Black experience through intergenerational narratives,” said Bedolla in a statement. “I am excited to be partnering with UTA Artist Space on such a timely collection of paintings, prints, photographs, sculptures, and conceptual works, which span over 40 years of artistic production.” full article

Artnet News, February 24, 2020
Arkansas’s Crystal Bridges Museum Just Opened a Sprawling Show About… (featuring Ronald Jackson) by Ben Davis

…Curated by Lauren Haynes—a transplant from the Studio Museum in Harlem—with Alejo Benedetti and Allison Glenn, the result is a 61-artist survey, shared between the cheese-factory chic of the Momentary’s new galleries and the bucolic luxury of Crystal Bridges. full article

BMORE Art, February 19, 2020
Leap of Faith: Delita Martin’s Calling Down The Spirits at NMWA by Lyric Prince

Walking through her solo exhibition, Calling Down The Spirits, at the National Museum of Women in the Arts felt like I was flipping through my grandmother’s photo albums, seeing intimate details of people that I could never know… full article

Hyperallergic, February 2020
Images of Black Women as Avatars of Spiritual Agency (featuring Delita Martin) by Angela N. Carroll

Delita Martin’s latest exhibition, Calling Down the Spirits, seeks to visualize the incorporeal and genetic strands that tether generations of Black women to each other and to the spiritual world. full article

FastCompany, February 2020
Fotografiska New York is a photo museum for the Instagram era (video features Tawny Chatmon at 2:10)

Fotografiska New York is now open in the historic Church Missions House in Manhattan. The photo museum for the modern world emphasizes experience—it’s open late and guests can stay for a glass of wine—while enjoying more current work than is available in traditional museums. full article

Biscayne Times, February 2020
Environmental Colors [featuring Morel Doucet] by Elisa Turner, BT Contributor

Danger is embedded in these deceptively decorative objects. They are seductive and deadly serious, surreal and grotesque. Ceramic art by Haitian-born Morel Doucet was never meant for your grandmother’s china cabinet. full article

BlackStew, January 2020
Why Alfred Conteh Is The Dopest Artist You Never Heard Of by By Ida Harris

Conteh is a living master whose work not only explores the complexity of his geometric imagination — it also critiques aspects of blackness in brutally honest and nicety ways. It presents questionable performances of blackness: at its peak; on its ass; while stagnant; in movement; during day-to-day survival. Conteh’s work is as unforgiving as he is unapologetic. Conteh cares. full article

Architectural Digest, December 2019
Fotografiska Makes Its New York Debut in a Historic Landmark Building [featuring Tawny Chatmon] by Liddy Berman

…Self-taught talent Tawny Chatmon’s dreamy, intimate portraits of children of color, woven through with elements of digital collage, gold leaf, and painting, shine with Klimt-ian beauty. full article

Miami New Times, November 2019
Five Young Artists to Watch During Miami Art Week 2019 [featuring Morel Doucet] by Suzannah Friscia

As an overwhelming number of artists, shows, and events flood into town for this year’s Miami Art Week, figuring out what to do is no easy task. Though the best-known names are sure to be the biggest draw, don’t forget to look out for up-and-coming talent to get a glimpse of where the art world is heading. full article

BMORE Art, November 2019
Friday Gallery Roundup [featuring Larry Cook] by Michael Anthony Farley

Most people who grew up in or around this city, or who at least have lived here long enough, probably have some memory of the campy, airbrushed photo backdrops that used to pop up in the median in front of the Lyric during concerts or at graduation parties or nightlife events. full article

ARTSY, September 2019
6 Photographers Making Powerful Work about Childhood by Jacqui Palumbo

…For her series “The Awakening” (2018–present), she and her stylist Isabelle Philogene look to the long garments and rich fabrics of Victorian artist Marianne Stokes. full article

Bella Magazine, 2019
An Art Aficionado’s Haven: Fotografiska New York Debuts In The Flatiron District by Rose Aljure

Now set to open in the Flatiron District, Fotografiska New York, announced today its expanded inaugural season. The exhibition space will open on October 18th, 2019 with solo presentations of photography by Ellen von Unwerth, Tawny Chatmon. full article

Gotham ToGo, September 2019 Issue
Fotografiska New York Opening Exhibitions by Fotografiska New York, Photography

…organized in collaboration with Galerie Myrtis, will include works from the series The Awakening, Byzantine Contempo, and from the recently completed series called The Redemption. Tawny Chatmon will be on view from October 18 to November 17, 2019… full article

FORBES, August 2019
From Ellen Von Unwerth’s Bathing Supermodels To Lars Tunbjörk’s Everyday Absurdity, Fotografiska Sets Its Gaze On New York by Natasha Gural, Contributor

The diverse inaugural exhibition will include: Tawny Chatmon, a self-taught artist who combines paint, digital collage, illustration, and gold leaf… full article

New York City Guide August 2019
Fotografiska New York Set for Fall Opening in Flatiron with Unwerth, Chatmon by Merrill Lee Girardeau

The inaugural exhibition schedule at Fotografiska New York will feature the photographers Ellen von Unwerth, Tawny Chatmon, Helene Schmitz, and Adi Nes. full article

Omenka Online, July 2019
Tawny Chatmon on Rcclaiming Black Identity by Oliver Enwonwu & Oyindamola Olaniyan

In this ninth part of our continuing series on artists in the diaspora who promote Black identity and pride through their work, we present African American artist Tawny Chatmon. full article

Professional Photographer Magazine, April 2019 Issue
TAWNY CHATMON FINDS FULFILLMENT IN DRIVING CULTURAL CHANGE by Robert Kiener

“My heart wasn’t in it anymore.” That’s how Tawny Chatmon remembers feeling about her commercial photography career after her father died. Sitting in her spacious studio, the basement of her Upper Marlboro, Maryland, home, she chokes back a tear as she remembers the self-selected assignment that changed her life.. full article

Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance, February 2019
African History Month – “Right Under Our Very Noses” by Kibibi Ajanku

…As we contemplate the great work of African Americans, we must also consider the living legacy…the work that exists right under our very noses. Myrtis Bedolla is the Founding Director of Baltimore’s own Galerie Myrtis. Within the gallery you will experience the living legacy that lies within stories on canvas told by contemporary African American artists. full article

BMORE Art, October 2018
AfriCOBRA: The Evolution of a Movement at Galerie Myrtis by Angela N. Carroll

The selections featured in Galerie Myrtis are a fraction of the groups prolific body of work. In honor of the anniversary other notable galleries and museums including Kravets Wehby Gallery (NY), the Brooklyn Museum (NY) in collaboration with the Tate Modern (UK), and the Kavi Gupta Gallery (Chicago) are concurrently exhibiting their own retrospectives. full article

Baltimore Magazine, September 2018
The Color Line by Lauren Larocca

On a rainy summer afternoon, Myrtis Bedolla, a highly respected gallerist and art dealer, sits in her second-floor office overlooking North Charles Street to talk about the shifts she’s witnessed in her 30-plus years in the field. full article

BMORE Art, July 2018
BLACK PORTRAITURE: FABRIC, FACE, AND FORM by Angela N. Carroll

The contemporary art world is experiencing a renaissance in Black portraiture. A new generation of master realist painters like Kehinde Wiley, T. Eliott Mansa, Jas Knight and Ronald Jackson build upon a foundation laid by earlier figurative artists like Charles White, Augusta Savage, John Biggers, and Elizabeth Catlett. full article

Texas Observer, June 2018
Houston Artist Delita Martin Gives Black Women a Seat at the Table in New Exhibit by Roxanna Asgarian

The 300 women whose portraits are drawn on plates in “The Dinner Table” are all friends, family or acquaintances of the artist [Delita Martin]. full article

BMORE Art, April 2018
Anna U. Davis on New Sculpture and Age-Old Gender Disparities by Aden Weisel

When you walk into Anna U. Davis’ solo exhibition, Damsels in Distress at Galerie Myrtis, her recent series of sculptures float away from the wall. Their shadows are secondary drawings on the gallery itself. The artist has broken with the rectangle of traditional painting and drawing and given us human cutouts at plus or minus life-size. full article

Oregon Public Broadcasting, September 30, 2017
Portland Painter Arvie Smith Wins the Governor’s Art Award for Lifetime Achievement by Tony Kushner

To celebrate the Oregon Arts Summit and the 50th anniversary of the Oregon Arts Commission, Gov. Kate Brown has resurrected the Governor’s Art Awards. The big winners of the Lifetime Achievement Awards are Portland painter Arvie Smith and the Kalapuya and Coos storyteller Esther Stutzman. full article

City Paper, September 22, 2017
Paintings removed from Stephen Towns’ solo show prompt discussion on empathy and emotion

…Shortly after the exhibition [Take Me Away to the Stars] was installed on a Friday, a black employee from Goucher’s public safety department complained that these works were offensive and wanted them removed full article

Hyperallergic, September 8, 2017
Provocative Nat Turner-Inspired Portraits Fuel Debate After Their Removal

Following an employee complaint, Stephen Towns removed his paintings from his solo [Take Me Away to the Stars] show at Rosenberg Gallery. The decision has since inspired some much-needed dialogue. full article

Baltimore Sun, September 8, 2017
Galerie Myrtis exhibit focuses on ‘Black Man in a Black World’ by Tim Smith

Baltimore’s Galerie Myrtis can be counted on to showcase art that engages the intellect and emotions as deeply as the eye. That’s doubly true of its latest exhibit, “Black Man in a Black World.”full article

Baltimore Sun, July 3, 2017
A Hot Summer Exhibit at C. Grimaldis Gallery by Tim Smith

The powerful statements start right inside the doorway of the gallery’s main floor, where Wesley Clark’s “My Big Black America,” presented in cooperation with Galerie Myrtis, occupies 10-by-16 feet of wall space.full article

Nashville Arts Magazine, June 2017

In Wesley Clark’s solo exhibition he creates wonders that could be found in a fantastical library. Employing narrative devices such as foreshadowing, looking back, and mixing chronology, he casts light onto ideas shaping the past, present, and future full article

Baltimore Sun, April 25, 2017
Best of Baltimore 2017 Best gallery: Galerie Myrtis

Galerie Myrtis enriches Baltimore’s commercial art scene. Founded by Myrtis Bedolla and relocated from Washington nearly a decade ago, this establishment has given that scene extra jolts — particularly from events that showcase artists of color. full article

City Paper, December 14, 2016
ESCAPE TO MIAMI: Baltimore goes to Art Basel

Galerie Myrtis – SPECTRUM ART FAIR: On the mainland, in Wynwood, Galerie Myrtis efficiently uses nearly every inch of its space, located in a breezy, visible spot near the back at Spectrum, showing work by Delita Martin, Morel Doucet, Anna U. Davis, Michael Gross, Ronald Jackson, and Jamea Richmond-Edwards. This is Myrtis’ first time at this fair – full article

City Paper, September 13, 2016
Best Group Show: “Consumption: Food as Paradox” at Galerie Myrtis

Sometimes group shows give us a headache—conceptually incongruous, visually disorganized—but this one kept feeding us the more we visited. Approaching the rather open-ended idea of consumption, curator Aden Weisel brought together work by artists who use food imagery in a range of ways to tackle how food is tied into, well, everything- full article

City Paper, November 2, 2016
Stephen Towns takes on myth and martyrdom in Nat Turner’s rebellion for his solo exhibition

…Dried oil paint dots wooden workbenches. Canvases in varying stages of completion cover the walls. Towns stands and stares and, after some time passes, looks away from the work, adjusts his glasses and settles onto a stool to talk about his solo show “Take Me Away to the Stars” at Galerie Myrtis, opening this Saturday. full article

BMORE Art, July 2016
How To Visualize Blackness on a White Wall? Paint the Wall BLACK!

Race has played an important role in how I navigate within the world of art. My work primarily speaks directly to Black Americans but many of the galleries and institutions that show my work are mostly owned and patronized by Europeans. So the context surrounding my artwork is reflected in the very same industry in which I show my artwork. full article

City Paper, July, 2016
Sondheim Finalists 2016: Larry Cook pokes holes in the idea of ‘post-racial’ America by Mia Capobianco

There is a distinct shift when moving through the Sondheim show into the central gallery that is currently home to Larry Cook’s work. The change in mood can be largely attributed to the change in lighting: The gallery is very dim, emphasizing the intense brightness of some pieces while shrouding others until they are nearly imperceptible. full article

Baltimore Times, June 24, 2016
New exhibit focuses on being Black in White America by Stacy M. Brown

The exhibit, “To Be Black in White America,” began simply, said Aden Weisel, the gallery director and curator for the display. “One of the artists that we represent, Larry Cook, became a semifinalist – and now he’s a finalist – for the 11th annual Janet & Walter Sondheim Artscape Prize.”full article

Baltimore Sun, June 23, 2016
Confronting race, violence through art at Galerie Myrtis by Tim Smith

That post-racial society we were all supposed to be enjoying by now remains elusive, which makes “To Be Black in White America,” opening Saturday at Galerie Myrtis, all the more powerful.full article

BMORE Art, June, 2016
Seeing Through the Lens of Black America by Angela Carroll

Wesley Clark, Larry Cook, Linda Day Clark, Oletha DeVane, Nehemiah Dixon III, Susan Goldman, Curlee Holton, Wayson R Jones, Jeffrey Kent, Wendel Patrick, Jamea Richmond-Edwards, and Stephen Towns each contribute critical, timeless inquiries which focalize the unsettling realities of black American experiences. full article

BMORE Art, June, 2016
Field Trip: Baltimore Gallery Visits by Cara Ober

According to the release, this exhibit “explores the politicization of the Black Identity in the United States. From legalized slavery to the most recent, hateful thing that Donald Trump said, a minority of Americans have been desperately and diligently fighting against a White power structure for equality throughout the nation’s relatively short history.” full article

Baltimore Magazine.net, Arts District, June 2016
Exhibit Of Seven Sondheim Finalists’ Work Opens At BMA

[Larry Cook, Finalist] – Every summer, the Janet & Walter Sondheim Artscape Prize recognizes a working artist in the Baltimore region with $25,000 to further their career. And every summer, in the weeks leading up to Artscape, the Baltimore Museum of Art hosts an exhibit to showcase the work of the talented finalists for the prize. full article

BMORE Art, June 22, 2016
The 2016 Sondheim Finalists: Photos by Cara Ober

[Larry Cook, Finalist] – It’s Sondheim season again! This is the eleventh year of the $25,000 Walter and Janet Sondheim Prize and, in many ways, the competition and exhibition of finalists has become a rote part of summer, almost taken for granted, but at the same time, it always brings an element of surprise. full article

BMORE Art, May 29, 2016
How to Make a Gift of Art by Joan Cox

…a group of about twenty-five art lovers, collectors and artists gathered for a Tea with Myrtis Art Salon. The gallery assembled an expert panel (and one long beautiful table filled with flowers, savories, sweets, and tea) for an intimate and informative talk on the topic of preserving, documenting and donating your art collection to an institution. full article

Baltimore Magazine.net, Arts District, March 2016
Baltimore Artist Wins National Portrait Gallery Competition by Gabriella Souza

Amy Sherald won the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition sponsored by the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. She is the first woman to ever win the prize, which comes with $25,000 and the opportunity to create a portrait of a living person for the museum’s permanent collection. full article

The Root, March 2016
10 Female Artists of Color on the Rise by Jessica Stafford Davis

[Amy Sherald] …Most recently she won first place in the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition, making her the first woman and African American to win the top prize. Her artwork will be on view at the National Portrait Gallery in D.C. until Jan. 8, 2017. full article

BMORE Art, March 2016
Finalists for the 2016 Janet and Walter Sondheim Prize Announced by Cara Ober

The finalists are Theo Anthony, Stephanie Barber, Darcie Book, Larry Cook, FORCE: Upsetting Rape Culture, Eric Kruszewski and Christos Palios. The competition awards a $25,000 fellowship to assist in furthering the career of a visual artist or visual artist collaborators living and working in the Greater Baltimore region. full article

City Paper, 2015
Food as Paradox by Rebekah Kirkman

For many of us, for many reasons, food is fraught with conflict. That’s what “Consumption: Food as Paradox,” at Galerie Myrtis through April 3, aims to tease out, by way of 14 artists who approach the concepts of food and consumption from various intersecting angles of race, class, gender, and culture. full article

Washington City Paper, 2015
D.C.’s 12 Best Gallery Shows of 2015 by Kriston Capps

By focusing on race and implicit bias in his photography and media work, [Larry] Cook is working with the themes that are on everyone’s minds. Yet his work never looks ripped from the headlines. full article

Baltimore Sun, 2015
A Provocative, Powerful ‘Image of the Black’ by Tim Smith

…She casts a penetrating gaze at the viewer that does not let go easily, even far across the elegant, high-ceilinged front room of Galerie Myrtis. The more you look, the more those eyes impart about past, present and perception…full article

Baltimore Style Magazine, 2015
Visible Man by Betsy Boyd

Black identity is reclaimed by black artists in The Image of the Black: Reimagined and Redefined, a seven-person exhibition now up and running at Galerie Myrtis. The mixed media show features gorgeously complex… full article

International Review of African American Art, 2015
Stayin Alive

…In this show S. Ross Browne, Nina Buxenbaum, Larry Judah Cook, Ronald Jackson, T. Elliott Mansa, Delita Martin and Arvie Smith draw from the familiar and the imagined to reinscribe the notion of blackness within the context of self. full article

Bmore Art, 2015
The Black Gaze: Where Cliff Huxtable and Cookie Lyon can Coexist by Cara Ober

…Things only got more complicated for black cold brewed coffee enthusiasts this past, blustery January when Empire exploded in front of our eyes. Cookie Lyon showed up in our living rooms draped in animal skins… full article

Atlanta Blackstar, 2015
The Rhythm of Structure: Detroit Techno and Sculpting Converge by Shelby Jefferson

“Techno taught me how to organize abstraction in my mind; the repetition opens up corridors of your conscious thought,” Johnson explains. “Working with stone in Africa, you see how rhythm manifests itself physically…” full article

Viva Tysons Magazine, 2015
Two Sides of David Carlson by Keith Loria

It was back in Glasgow, Kentucky when Arlington’s own David Carlson first became interested in art on a serious level; learning from his high school teacher, Karl Weiss. “Weiss used to shake his head at my ideas… full article

Michigan Chronicle, 2015
Art exhibit by Inkster’s own M. Scott Johnson by Scott Talley

…the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History presents Shadow Matter: The Rhythm of Structure / Afro Futurism to Afro Surrealism. “Shadow Matter” features the work of renowned sculptor M. Scott Johnson… full article

City Paper, 2015
Jeffrey Kent closes SubBasement Studios by Rebekah Kirkman

In paint-splattered, brown work boots, clean black jeans, and a black Andy Warhol T-shirt (neatly tucked in), Jeffrey Kent hops down a couple of steps into the main area of the dimly lit gallery. “Watch your step, everywhere in here… full article

GW Today, 2014
Behind Larry Cook’s Lens by Julyssa Lopez

The photographer, M.F.A. ’12, discusses the role race and identity play in his conceptual images. full article

International Review of African American Art, 2013
Amy Sherald, A Second Life by Marlisa Sanders

…“Art is all I have,” she explains. “It’s what I wake up to do, I’m lost without it.” In the hospital waiting for her new heart, she drew, did research for art, and joked with the nurses about her next piece being a tin woman. Like the tin… full article

Washington Sculptors Group Newsletter, Spring 2013
Lynda Smith-Bugge by Rima Schulkind

When I suggested to Lynda that she be my next interview subject, her positive response was enthusiastic. I had at first thought her website name “Sculpture for the Soul” was a bit…hokey? But after spending some time with her… full article

Huffington Post, 2013
Black Artists: 30 Contemporary Art Makers Under 40 You Should Know

[article features artwork by Jamea Richmond-Edwards] …we’ve picked 30 young black artists who are contributing to the ongoing conversation of race and representation in contemporary art. full article

International Review of African American Art, 2013
Family Turmoil Was The Creative Spark For A Young Artist by Marlisa Sanders

When Jamea Richmond was about seven years old she and her older brother and his best friend were walking home from school, and passed a “beautiful abandoned” church. But that day, they saw something no child should ever see… full article

Gay Life Magazine, 2013
Local Artist’s New Series Critiques Anti-Marriage Equality Sentiment by Querin Brown

…The vision for Jeffrey’s most recent series, Preach!, was sparked shortly after the 2008 presidential election. Kent was inspired by stories of the African-American voting statistics for California’s Proposition 8,… full article

Juxta Positions, Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), 2012
Jeffrey Kent Show Argues for Marriage Equality as a Civil Right

Solo show curated by the Exhibition Development Seminar at MICA, Baltimore-based artist Jeffrey Kent uses racially charged imagery to criticize what he sees as some of the opinions maintained within the black Christian… full article

Bmore Art, 2012
Photos from the Contemporary Response at Galerie Myrtis by Cara Ober

…eight contemporary African-American artists were asked to create a new, original work based on one of the works included in ‘Revealing the African Presence in Renaissance Europe,’ currently on view at The Walters. full article

Urbanite Magazine, 2011
What is your Tar Baby? by Cara Ober

…Using painted portraits, layers of text, and scraps of pattern, Palmer depicts President Barack Obama, Dave Chappelle, Marilyn Monroe, and many others, in order to question the bigotry, racism, and the stereotypes that confine them. full article